Lokesh vs Chiddu over Delimitation debate

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) National Working President, Nara Lokesh, on Friday asked the Congress party why it opposed the Constitution Amendment Bill, which would have ensured proportionate increase in parliamentary seats for all states. Lokesh took to ‘X’ to counter senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, who had found fault with the TDP leader’s comments on the issue and advised him to do the math again before speaking on delimitation.

Last month, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, was defeated in Lok Sabha.

It was aimed to fast-track implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures by enabling delimitation based on the 2011 Census.

Lokesh, who is minister in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet headed by his father N. Chandrababu Naidu, claimed that the NDA had sought to address the imbalance through the Delimitation Bill and a proportionate increase in parliamentary seats for all states.

“Under Article 81 of the Constitution of India, the allocation of seats in the House of the People has remained frozen based on the 1971 Census. This constitutional freeze is set to end after the first Census conducted post-2026. Once the freeze is lifted, reapportionment becomes inevitable. Every South Indian state - without exception - stands to lose relative representation compared to the northern states. That is precisely the concern we have consistently raised, and the very imbalance the NDA sought to address through the Delimitation Bill and a proportionate increase in parliamentary seats for all states,” Lokesh said in a post.

“Surely, a distinguished legal mind such as yours is fully aware of this constitutional position. Which raises an important question: Why did the Congress party oppose the Delimitation Bill in Parliament? Was it political posturing at the cost of South India’s long-term interests?,” the TDP leader asked Chidambaram.

“The Congress party must answer the simple questions: Under Article 81, as it currently stands, what happens after the 2026 Census? Does the South not lose relative representation vis-à-vis the North? If that is indeed the case, why oppose a constitutional mechanism intended to prevent precisely that outcome?,” Lokesh added.

Earlier, Chidambaram had advised Lokesh should do his math before talking about delimitation.

“The Opposition parties opposed and defeated the Constitution Amendment Bill because the math showed that the five Southern states will lose representation in the LS in terms of RELATIVE strength (if Art 81 is applied without a change) The gainers will be some of the North Indian states.

"The BJP tried to mask the outcome by increasing the representation in LS of each State by 50 per cent, but that was exposed as an illusion Whether you take the representation of AP in LS at the current level of 25 seats or increase it to 38 seats, if Article 81 is applied without a change, the RELATIVE representation of AP will diminish or reduce. I urge Mr Lokesh to please do the math again,” wrote the former union minister.